A few years ago, when getting started in the paper modeling revolution, I made the usual beginner's mistake of running across the infameous Maly Modelarz pirate website and making a "new download available" posting on the cardmodels group I then had membership. While trying to recover from the absolutely nasty flaming I received from the copyright Nazis (and no, I never will forgive you for the treatment you gave me, and every other neophyte who happened to blunder out they had discovered this great site), I received a bit of kindness from one member telling me not to take the abuse seriously, since just about everyone in the hobby at that time had downloaded and built (or tried building) some of the pirate Maly kits....and, what the hey, all the Maly kits were good for was practicing on anyway. Which is a long winded way of saying that the Maly Modelarz kits have had a well-deserved reputation of being some reasonably good designs absolutely destroyed by the horrible quality of the magazine that published them....old ragged-edge manila construction paper, terrible printing, just about non-existent construction diagrams, terrible artwork, and just about every other failing that could be attributed to a paper model.
That said, I recently had a senior moment and included a Maly kit of the P-51B (January 2003 version) in an order from Lighthouse Modelart. Actually, I had been hearing from the grapevine that Maly's quality was improving, the kit was nice and cheap, and I was a bit curious to see how much better their kits are now.
Guys and gals, this isn't your father's Maly kit. Good quality card stock, polished paper cover. Lots of construction diagrams, and enough detail to actually be useful. Terrific cockpit and wheelwell detail. Rudder separated from the vertical fin....elevators separated from the horizontal stabilizer.....even trim tabs separated from the main control surfaces. Great printing....some of the most nicely depicted instrument panels I have seen, good color registration, crisply drawn insignia. First impression is that this is one of the nicer P-51B kits available. The only nits I would pick with this kit is that the weathering attempts are a bit stark...a bit heavy handed on the opacity setting of the old air brush tool, but at least the attempt is there. And, Christine of the kind words to a beginner who made the mistake of downloading from the notorious pirate site and admitting it, this model is not for practicing on. This puppy is going to challenge the building skills of all but the most advanced cardbutchers among our merry little band.
That said, I recently had a senior moment and included a Maly kit of the P-51B (January 2003 version) in an order from Lighthouse Modelart. Actually, I had been hearing from the grapevine that Maly's quality was improving, the kit was nice and cheap, and I was a bit curious to see how much better their kits are now.
Guys and gals, this isn't your father's Maly kit. Good quality card stock, polished paper cover. Lots of construction diagrams, and enough detail to actually be useful. Terrific cockpit and wheelwell detail. Rudder separated from the vertical fin....elevators separated from the horizontal stabilizer.....even trim tabs separated from the main control surfaces. Great printing....some of the most nicely depicted instrument panels I have seen, good color registration, crisply drawn insignia. First impression is that this is one of the nicer P-51B kits available. The only nits I would pick with this kit is that the weathering attempts are a bit stark...a bit heavy handed on the opacity setting of the old air brush tool, but at least the attempt is there. And, Christine of the kind words to a beginner who made the mistake of downloading from the notorious pirate site and admitting it, this model is not for practicing on. This puppy is going to challenge the building skills of all but the most advanced cardbutchers among our merry little band.